Annie Goines likes the cheerful colors at Midway Elementary School, but she hopes changes this year will be more than cosmetic.

Midway is among 10 campuses in a “transformation zone” created by Caddo schools Superintendent Lamar Goree. He hopes to help the schools shed their “F” performance grade in a single year through a complete staff reorganization, extended class time for reading and math and daily remediation for struggling students.

“I would like to see all these kids excel. I would like to see this school excel,” said Goines, who attended the Shreveport school’s open house Aug. 7. Goines’ daughter will teach third grade at Midway and her granddaughter starts first grade today as Caddo kicks off the 2014-15 school year.

The transformation zone plan buys Caddo two years of time to demonstrate improvements to state education officials before they move to take over chronically low performing campuses. The plan also is an effort to rebuild community confidence in the school system after the failure of former Superintendent Gerald Dawkins’ improvement efforts.

Goree set an ambitious goal for the targeted schools: at least 90 percent of students working at grade level by the end of the 2016 school year.

“I will not have a Fair Park and a Woodlawn,” he said. “We can’t just fail kids year after year.”

The school system has invested about $4.4 million in the program before the first student sets foot in class.

School board members approved five new positions to directly oversee the schools. The $370,000 to cover those salaries comes from state school improvement grants, Title I funding earmarked for high-poverty schools and the school system’s general fund. Grant money also will cover stipends paid to teachers and trainers who participated in a four-day teaching strategy workshop in July.

Capital projects money totaling about $2.8 million will pay for renovations at the schools. Some of the projects were part of a rotating schedule of routine improvements like parking lot paving.

Principals and teachers are investing some of their own money in landscaping and classroom decor.

“I’m going to put up movie posters in the restrooms,” he said. “It’s going to be like a theater restroom.”

He has his own set of academic goals after merging students and staff from three schools. Midway will serve about 340 prekindergarten through third-grade students from its neighborhood as well as those surrounding Werner Park and Lakeshore elementary schools.

“Only about 30 percent of our kids are on grade level,” Rainey said. “Our school target is at least 80 percent of our students on grade level this year. That’s a 50 percent increase.”

Teachers at Midway and the other nine transformation schools will use a common set of strategies to help students learn reading and math. Children who lag will get extra tutoring targeted to the concepts they’re missing. Teachers will measure students’ reading and math levels at least three times a year, Goree said.

Rainey and his colleagues at the other transformation schools also are working to deepen ties with parents and community members. He’s pleased that more than 100 parents — nearly a third of the families on the roll this year — attended Midway’s open house.

He has high expectation for parents, too. He wants them to sign up for volunteer work at school. He told them they need to get their children to school every day.

“I also told them that no one can get out of the car in nighties and pajamas,” Rainey said. “We don’t need that at school. It doesn’t set a good example. I will get every child out of the car every morning. I’ve taken car duty. That way I can talk to the parents every day.”